Recruit a Star Wars droid to do your daily chores

By using nothing more than a trash can and a few random items found around his house, Matthew Scott Hunter was able to create a fully functional ‘droid vacuum cleaner’ that wouldn’t look out of place roaming the halls of the Death Star.

To bring his creation to life, Hunter started out with an ordinary light weight trashcan that looked remarkably similar to R2-D2, the lovable sidekick droid character from the Star Wars franchise.

He used the trash can to represent the droid’s body and domed head. He then added legs to his creation by using stiff poster board and finished off the design with a bunch of random household items like discarded bottle caps that represented bolts and joints.

To give his droid cleaner some personality, Hunter sacrificed an oscillating desk fan to make R9-D9’s head rotate, while a Bluetooth speaker placed inside its head played those all too familiar droid sounds. All these extras are powered by a portable battery placed on one of the droids legs.

To transform his creation from a glorified movie prop into something that actually cleans his house, Hunter attached his cleaner droid to an automatic roomba vacuum cleaner. Obviously the upgrades mean the roomba vacuum can no longer clean certain areas of his home like under couches and tables, but that a sacrifice Hunter was willing to live with.

Unfortunately Hunter wasn’t able to create a perfect replica of the R2-D2 droid we all know and love, so he decided to go with the next best thing, an R9-D9 droid, which according to the Star Wars ‘Wookieepedia’ was first seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.